This invention relates to a process for making thinly sheeted fried snack pieces from various starch-containing foodstuffs which have a rippled or corrugated surface on both sides of the piece. One preferred embodiment of the invention is particularly suitable for making a rippled potato chip from dehydrated potato ingredients to form snack pieces similar in appearance and texture to rippled potato chips made by cutting and frying fresh potatoes.
The production of conventional potato chips and frozen french fries from fresh raw potatoes by cutting the potatoes into thin flat slices or rectangular shapes, is well known. A variant of these products is made by cutting the fresh potatoes with knives designed to make rippled potato chips (such as Ruffles.RTM. brand potato chips manufactured by Frito-Lay, Inc.) or corrugated or crinkled fried potato pieces (such as Golden Crinkles brand french fries manufactured by Ore-Ida Company). Many alternatives for forming ridged or rippled chips and corrugated or crinkled fresh fries are illustrated in the publications of the Urschel Laboratories, Inc., Valparaiso, Ind. Such products have a pleasing variegated appearance desired by many consumers. Such rippled potato chips are often cut thicker to strengthen the piece for dipping into various condiments. Ripples are provided in the long dimension of the chip so that when subjected to the dipping action, the ripples resist flexing in the longitudinal direction, thereby decreasing breakage. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,227 for a novel cutter design to produce ridged chips with sidewalls of varied thickness, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,586 for the product produced thereby. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,650,684 and 4,508,739 disclose rippled chip products cut from fresh potatoes.
Fabricated frozen french fried potato products made by forming a dough of dried potatoes, forming and frying the resultant dough are also well known. U.K. Pat. No. 1,331,042 describes a process for making "chips" (known as "french fries" in the United States), wherein a continuous ribbon of extruded potato-based dough having a rectangular cross-section is shaped by two pairs of rolls having opposing grooves perpendicular to the direction of dough movement. The pairs of rolls are arranged at right angles to one another and are located sequentially one after the other. In making "simulated scallops", a ribbon of dough is extruded having a circular or oval cross-section, which is cut into thin slices and individually fed through nip of single pair of contra-rotating corrugated rollers. A corrugated sheet of extruded potato dough in the shape of french fries is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,292. The individual french fry pieces are broken from the sheet after heating. U.S. Pat. No. 4,198,437 describes a fabricated french fry having a novel shape.
The production of snack chips and fabricated french fried potatoes from various starch-containing foodstuffs is also well-known in the food industry. Many products have been made from dehydrated potato ingredients. For example, potato chip-like snack products are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,027,258, 3,109,739, 3,935,322 and 3,998,975. U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,687, discloses a process wherein two dissimilar doughs are pressed together, cut and fried to form a snack products resembling a potato skin.
While it is well-known to produce rippled or crinkled chips from fresh-cut potatoes, it has not heretofore been possible to produce similar products from dough compositions comprising chiefly starch-containing solids. U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,517 discloses a process for making a rippled potato chip-type product from a potato dough; however, only one surface of the chip is provided with ripples, not two. The resultant product is not a true rippled chip as the rippled effect is more pronounced on one side of the cooked chip than on the other side.